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Home > Resources > Resource Exchange > Assessment > What is an "A" Paper?

What is an "A" paper?

Contributed by Louise Bishop, Honors College

This question is probably the most frequently asked in any literature class. To help answer it, let me outline for you what a paper must have in order to get a "C" grade:

• The paper must be college-level work: that means that it must have evidence of thoughtful inquiry. A college-level paper does not have misspelled words (especially in the age of spell-check); a college level paper does not have grammatical errors. Such errors reduce a paper's grade to below a C; no paper with such errors can receive higher than a C-, and most will receive D's.

• The paper must have a thesis. A thesis is the paper's "point," what the paper is about, which is more particular than just being "about" Arcadia, for instance, or about modernism. What in particular are you exploring? What point are you trying to make about your specific area of inquiry? Coming up with a thesis you find intriguing, demanding, outrageous, or confusing means reading, talking with your group, talking with me, and testing your ideas with your peers. Don't be surprised if your thesis changes in the course of writing your paper; instead, count on it, and be sure to write rough drafts. If your paper doesn't have a thesis, it will receive no grade higher than a C-, and it will most likely receive a D.

So what makes a "B" paper? Besides correct spelling, good grammar, and a thesis, the "B" paper's thesis is interesting, limited, and specific. Its argument takes clear steps, and its good, cogent evidence ("judicious quotation") and organization reveal the care taken in writing the paper and analyzing the evidence. Its paragraphs make sense as paragraphs--each treats a part of the argument--and the paragraphs follow one another logically, tied together by an implicit structure (the enthymeme).

Then there's the "A" paper. Besides correct spelling, good grammar, and good evidence, and logical organization, the "A" paper has a compelling thesis, one that might challenge at first but which holds its own with the reader. There are no holes in its argument: on the contrary, its analysis is sophisticated, complete, and challenging. It's a paper the reader thinks with, where the next idea presented is both precise and intriguing. An "A" paper reads beautifully aloud, and reveals a probing intellect. An "A" paper has some "art" to it.

The most important advice I can give you for writing "A" papers is to write a draft a week ahead of the due date and revise it BEFORE HANDING IT IN. I've found in my own writing that I don't figure out what I'm talking about until the end of writing my first draft. Only when I've written a draft does my thesis become clear. When I rewrite, I use what I've figured out at the end of the writing process to BEGIN my second draft, and VOILA! I have a better paper. I'm happy to read rough drafts of your papers, and I encourage you to spend the minimum time needed to write a good paper (a simple rule of thumb: a five-page paper requires at least ten hours of organizing and writing, and that doesn't include research time).